1700 De Fer Map of Insular California and Mexico

A landmark 1700 map showing California as an island and the first published dissemination of Fr. Eusebio Kino's groundbreaking explorations in New Mexico and California.

A Closer Look

Drawn by Nicolas de Fer, official Geographe de Monseigneur le Dauphin, this map covers from Cape Mendocino (California) to the Gulf of Mexico and the mouth of the Mississippi River (as erroneously placed, by Hennepin, in the vicinity of Galveston Bay) and from Santa Fe to Mexico City. Place names are identified textually and numerically, referencing a table of 314 locations in the upper right.

The State of the Art

As the title suggests, De Fer based this map on documents sent to the Monsieur Regis at the Paris Academie Royale des Sciences by a 'Spanish Grandee.' This most likely refers to Carlos de Siguenza y Gongora, the Spanish Royal Geographer in Mexico City, who prepared a manuscript version of Kino's map in 1696 (a copy of this manuscript survives in the Jesuit Library of Rome). The original missive was most likely intended for Guillaume Delisle, a highly respected French cartographer who held the title of Geographe du Roi. However, as Geographe de Monseigneur le Dauphin, De Fer would also have had access, a fact on which he was quick to capitalize. Thus, some cartographic historians have considered this map the 'first pirated copy' of Kino's work. However, close examination reveals that, while Kino's explorations form its essence, De Fer's map stands alone as a separate piece - a synthesis of Kino's new information with the established model for the mapping of the west.

California as an Island

The idea of an insular California first appeared as a work of fiction in Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo's c. 1510 romance Las Sergas de Esplandian; subsequent exploration of the region by the Spanish revealed a peninsular Baja, and this mapping stood for many years. However, beginning in 1624, maps produced by the English and the Dutch began to promote the idea that California was an island. By the middle of the century, French geographer Nicolas Sanson added his authority to the myth. California's insularity was thus established cartographic canon by the time De Fer's map was produced.

Hennepin's Mississippi

The Mississippi River here enters the Gulf of Mexico at the eastern extreme of this map, significantly west of its actual mouth. Although by 1700, La Salle had successfully located the mouth of the Mississippi, De Fer's map reflects the earlier Hennepin model. This had the effect - likely deliberate - of dramatically expanding French Louisiana and showing the proximity of French territory to the rich silver mines of central Mexico - a fact that would not have been lost on either the French King or De Fer's personal patron the Dauphin.

Pre-Kino Cartography

Where De Fer draws from earlier maps, he identifies these elements textually. These include major cities in Mexico, Santa Fe, Mexico City, Compostella, Culiacan, St. Luis Potosi, Sombrette, and Sinaloa, among others. Situated to the north and west of Santa Fe are Gran Teguaio and Gran Quivira, speculative Kingdoms of Gold derived from Spanish legend and conquistador reports.

Publication History and Census

This map was engraved by Charles Inselin for inclusion in De Fer's L'Atlas Curieux ou le Monde. It was also published in De Fer's 1701 Cartes et Descriptions Generales et Particulieres ... d'Espagne. This map exists in two states, this being the first. The only notable difference between the two is the date change, 1700 to 1705, in the title cartouche.